For some reason I have always been interested in words, particularly words that are related to our Faith, their origin, and how they are used. So I thought I'd share some of these words with you from time to time. If nothing else, it may help you win a Catholic trivia contest someday!
Today's word is "church". Where does that word come from? Why do we use it It's a word that is used alot but it's sort of a strange word and doesn't seem to be related to any other English word.
Our word "church" is the english version of the German word "kirche". An older spelling is "kirika" which descends from two Greek words: "kyrios" and "oika" Kyrios means master or lord and "oika" means house. Together the ancient Greek word is "kyriake" or the lord's house or the master's house. Thus our word "church" and the way we use it means the "Lord's house".
We are familiar of course with "Kyrios"as we still pray "Kyrie eleision" or "Lord, have mercy".
No, I'm not a Greek scholar, I just have a good dictionary on my pda that shows the etymology of words.
